This has been sent to the Attorney General's Office. They have forwarded it on to their Mortgage Fraud task force.
Back in May, my husband and I consulted with US Mortgage in regards to a loan modification. At the time, we had an ARM and were looking to get into a fixed rate. We are small business owners in the Service Industry who have lost a considerable amount of monthly income due to the economy, and although we were current on our mortgage payments, we were fearful of eventually losing our home to rising interest rates.
On the suggestion of a friend, we spoke with Patrick Brown, the Operations Director of US Mortgage Funding, as well as another gentleman, Dave who was introduced to us as one of the owners of the company. We explained our situation, and how money had gotten tight over the past 12 or so months. They told us they could help by working with our lender to have our loan modified to a fixed rate. They told us some people try to work directly with their lenders to do modifications, but the process is very difficult and they have to sign a contract with the lender stating if any of their income documents are incorrect, even unknowingly, that they would be under penalty of purgery. They also told us that if at any time we decided we were not happy with their services, or simply wanted to cancel, even up to the day of the signing of the new modification, we were entitled to a 100% money back guarantee. My husband and I went home and discussed the opportunity. Although their fee, $1800.00 was more than we could afford, we didn't want to make any mistakes working with our lender directly, since we were told it was such a difficult and dangerous process. We paid the fee by credit card and signed the contract in late June.
The contract stated that we had 10 business days to get all financial documents to them. However, one of the documents was a Profit & Loss statement for the current year. While working on our P&L, my Father-in-law became extremely ill the beginning of July and passed away, July 12th. Obviously, everything was forced to be put on hold, as we had to travel back and forth to Myrtle Beach, SC to deal with family issues. US Mortgage was also notified of our situation. During this period, Patrick Brown left US Mortgage.
Excessive travel and loss of time and work caused us to lapse on our mortgage and we started receiving letters and phone calls from our lender. We had never been behind on our mortgage before. I called Wachovia in mid-July, and told them what had happened to cause us to fall behind. At that time, I also asked about doing a modification with them, directly. They said our loan was a Bank of New York loan and at the time, there was no modification program available for those loans, but to check back in a couple of weeks as one should be in place by then.
Within a couple of weeks I called Wachovia again. They gave me a list of everything they needed document-wise. We completed our P&L and sent it along with all the other required documents and within a few short weeks, we had our modification with our new terms and a fixed interest rate, at NO cost to us. The whole process was extremely easy and hassle-free. We signed the agreement and sent it back, along with our mortgage payment.
About 3 weeks ago, my husband tried contacting US Mortgage in regards to a refund. He was put into Customer Service's voicemail. He left a message for someone to get back to us. No one did. A few days later, he called again and was put into voicemail. He left a message. Surprisingly - there was no call back. A bit frustrated, he contacted an acquaintance of ours that works in a different division of US Mortgage. He gave us the name and phone number of Jamen Lachs and told us to contact him regarding our refund. When we finally had a chance to speak over the phone, I explained the entire situation to him. One of the first things he said to me was "Did you even bother to read the contract you signed?" He then, in a very belittling tone, explained to me that there was a 72 hr. cancellation policy (which is standard with any written contract in the state of FL), and that after 10 business days, if all the paperwork is not received by them, there would be no refund given. After all - why should we expect to get our money back after US Mortgage had put all their time and work into our modification? My question to him was, "How could US Mortgage have done any work on our modification without all of the required documents?" I happen to know that once US Mortgage's "Compliance Department" receives all necessary documents, they are sent to a third-party company who handles the modifications. There was no modification program available for our loan at that time, anyway! So aside from a couple of phone calls - NOTHING was done with our modification.
With Jamen's combative attitude and refusal to give me back our $1800.00 which was guaranteed verbally by both Patrick and Dave, I informed him that I was no longer speaking with him on the subject and was seeking my own legal counsel. I went to the Florida Attorney General's webpage on Mortgage fraud and found the following:
Homeowners should NEVER pay any up-front fees and should avoid any high-pressure sales tactics. Fees may only be collected AFTER services are completed.
Homeowners should first try talking to their lenders or a lawyer before contracting with any third-party company for rescue or modification services.
We came to US Mortgage in a time of need. Financial difficulty was starting to set in and interest rates were on the rise. We felt we had no other recourse to save our home. We were obviously uninformed at the time. We were guaranteed - I can't tell you how many times we were verbally guaranteed a 100% refund, if at any time we thought we could get a better deal, elsewhere or if we wanted to try to do a modification, ourselves (which we were scared into thinking we couldn't). This was obviously a very emotional sale, and that's what they played off of - emotion. Our fear of losing our home we've worked so hard to keep and having nowhere for our family to go. They said they had our best interest in mind, and that they were there to help. Looking back, it all seems quite criminal.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
rcl7774
Boca Raton,Florida,
United States of America
US Mortgage Refunded 110%
#2Author of original report
Mon, March 01, 2010
I hereby wanted to ammend my complaint in full to let everybody know that US Mortgage Funding is an honorable company that stands by it's word in its entirety. I was refunded 110% to my full and complete satisfaction. I am thankful for their cooperation.
Sincerely,
Rebecca